Jigawa Assembly begins amendment of electoral law

A bill seeking to repeal Jigawa State Independent Electoral Commission (JISIEC) Law 2024 and re-enact Law 2012 has passed first and second readings.

This followed a motion moved by the Majority Leader of the Jigawa State House of Assembly, Mr. Lawan Muhammad (APC-Roni), and seconded by Mr. Muhammad Inuwa (APC-Kazaure) at a plenary on Friday.

Muhammmad said the bill seeks to repeal the JISEIC Amendment No. 1 Law, No. 7, 2024, to re-enact the provisions of Sections 64 and 65 of the JISEIC Law Cap J19, Laws of Jigawa State 2022, and for related matters.

The Speaker, Mr. Haruna Aliyu, who presided over the plenary, asked the majority leader to suspend order 12 and rule 81 for the bill to be read for the second time.

After unanimous approval by the members, Muhammad read the bill for the second time, which was seconded by the speaker.

On the reason for the amendment, the Majority Leader said: “Just recently, this honourable house amended this law to be in line with the electoral act of 2023. We amended this section in order to domesticate the electoral act.

“So we are now going back to the previous bill that we repealed and suspended. That’s the reason for the suspension of rule 81. So we are going back to the previous law that we suspended just two months ago.

“This is also because of the current order or Supreme Court judgement on local government councils. Therefore, I moved this motion so that honourable members would be in line with the court judgement to allow us to conduct local government elections in the next two months.

“I want my colleagues to be supportive and join our colleagues in the 36 states.”.

Contributing, members representing Kaugama and Kazaure constituencies, Sani and Muhammad Inuwa, expressed the need for other members to support the amendment in order to have democratically elected officials run the affairs of the local government councils of the state.

After unanimous approval by the house, the speaker referred the bill to the Committee on Local Government and told them to report back on July 30.